Frutarom Industries Ltd. has announced that it has signed an agreement for the purchase of 70% of the shares of Argentinian companies Meroar S.A and Meroaromas S.A. (Meroar).

First Entry into Argentina

Started in 1980, Meroar develops, manufactures and markets flavors and fragrances. Headquarters in Buenos Aires, the manufacturing site features R&D and application labs and separate production facilities for flavors and fragrances. In 2017, Meroar’s sales turnover was approximately $7.4 million, which exhibited higher profitability rates than those of Frutarom's flavors division.

"The Meroar acquisition constitutes a significant first entry for Frutarom into Argentina, and is yet another strategic acquisition of an activity in Frutarom’s core field which will enable us to offer our customers a broader range of innovative solutions, and an important step in implementing Frutarom’s strategic plan to develop a worldwide business of fragrances, particularly in emerging markets with high growth rates,” said Ori Yehudai, president and CEO of Frutarom Group

Looking at Latin America

The news comes at a time where Frutarom continues its strategy to develop global activity in the field of fragrance. In 2017, Frutarom acquired Israeli company Turpaz and Polish company Pollena Aroma, along with nine other acquisitions.

This acquisition also marks the eighth acquisition in a Latin America market in the last six years. Over the six years, Frutarom has acquired Brazilian company Mylner, Guatemalan company Aroma, Peruvian company Montana, Brazilian company Nardi Aromas, Brazilian company SDFLC and the Brazilian group Bremi. In addition to these acquisitions, Frutarom has expanded a number of its production capacities and R&D efforts.

"The Meroar acquisition continues Frutarom’s implementation of its rapid and profitable growth strategy and the realization of its vision 'to be the preferred partner for tasty and healthy success.' This is our second acquisition this year, following 20 acquisitions in the past two years, and 37 acquisitions we have carried out since 2013, which have been successfully integrated into our global activity and have contributed, and will continue to contribute, to further growth in sales and improved profits and margins through maximum capitalization on the synergies they bring,” said Yehudai.

“We have an outstanding pipeline of further strategic acquisitions of companies and activities within the scope of our operations and we will continue carrying out our rapid and profitable growth strategy, which is based on combining profitable internal growth and strategic acquisitions, in order to achieve our recently revised targets of at least $ 2.25 billion in sales with an EBITDA margin of 23% in our core activities by the year 2020.”